Those Left Behind
by Staacey
Summary: Miriam had no time for religion or G-d until the morning her son called and told her that her husband and daughters were taken in the Rapture and they were both left.
1. Chapter 1

First off I do not own the Left Behind Series that belongs to the wonderful minds of Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Now this is my first foray into fan fiction and I am more than happy to take constructive criticism and I will ignore all flames. I also want to note that I am not a Bible scholar like Mr. LaHaye and I can and likely will make mistakes concerning the Bible and I will do my best to avoid any errors in my writings. If you see any Biblical errors please inform on it and I will do my best to correct it.

**Those Left Behind**

**The Beginning**

_I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.__Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed —in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."__1 Corinthians 15:50-54_

Miriam slid her finger across her phone quickly sending off a short good morning to her husband David in Texas. She was in Chicago for a once in a lifetime opportunity to work for the next Republican Presidential candidate Karl Gibson, who was often called President Gerald Fitzhugh's protégé in politics. Mariam was a Political Image Consultant and a dang good one if you asked her. During the last 15 years she had worked with various politicians in Texas and the surrounding states to help politicians become elected. She had no doubt that she would get the job. The only issue would be how her husband would react when she told him that she would need to move to Chicago and later Washington D.C. He would not like the idea of moving away from their home at all. She was hoping that he would not put up too much of a fuss when she told him she would be going alone without him or the kids.

David was Miriam's husband who she met while in the army. They served together in Baghdad. He had been a young combat whose room was just a few doors down from hers. They met one day while she was walking to drop off her laundry and he had, in an act chivalry, offered to carry her bag of laundry. They had quickly hit it off and had been engaged after a few short months and were married as soon as they hit state side. Soon after they were married they had their first child, a beautiful blue eyed boy named Nathaniel. When Nathaniel was seven years old they had a set of twins Faith and Hope. The twins would be celebrating their shared birthday in three days and Mariam would make it back just in time for it.

Mariam sighed as she laid back into the bed in her hotel room. Today she was going home after being gone from her family for almost a week, a week of polygraphs and having her life examined under a microscope. If she was going to work for a Presidential Candidate they wanted to make sure she was trustworthy and up to the job.

The best thing about being away from home for the last week was that her husband's church was having another one of their Revivals and he would want her to go to it. Mariam had no issue with others being religious but she did not really want to be roped into religion herself. Going to church was not high on her priority list on Sunday much less any other day of the week. She believed in G-d and always tried to do the right thing and figured that was enough but it was not, according to David who had been _saved_shortly after the twins were born. David would often preach to her about how you needed an active relationship with G-d and how you had to do more than go to church on Christmas! It was really too much mysticism for Mariam to get into.

David's Holy Roller kick had started when Hope was put in the hospital when she was two years old. While Hope was in ICU a man named Aden Black had asked them if he could pray for little Hope. David stayed in contact with Aden, who was a preacher at a church not too far from their home. Aden started to invite them to church, and at first they went as a family, but Mariam quickly found herself making excuses for why she could not go that Sunday. Soon David was going every Sunday and having a Wednesday prayer meeting, dragging the kids along with him, and Mariam was finding things to do at work or just lying about work and going out by herself away from her husband's religious fanaticism. She could still remember the day he came home claiming he was saved by G-d's grace!

Since that day she had found herself pulling more and more away from her husband and felt her move to D.C. would be a good way to put some space between her and David. David was no longer the man she married and she was not sure if she could continue to put up with his Jesus kick any longer. He had been trying to _save_ her for years now and she was having none of it! Last year after the horrible attack on Israel by Russia, David's church had kicked the saving of souls into overtime and it seemed lately all David talked about was G-d and she just wanted a break from him.

As Mariam relaxed for a few more minutes before calling a cab to take her to the airport, her phone rang. She flicked on the phone and saw her home phone number on the screen, David must be calling her.

"Hey, David did you get my message?" Mariam asked." I was just about to call a cab."

"Mom," said the panicked voice of her son Nathaniel, "Dad and the girls are missing!"

"David what are you talking about?" Mariam asked her son. She could feel her stomach twisting in knots and was beginning to panic.

"I woke up late for school and went to go see why Dad never woke me up. When I went into your bedroom he wasn't there, and his car is still here. I checked Hope and Faith's room but they were not there." He explained." Mom I have looked everywhere and they are not here! I turned the T.V. on and, Mom, people are missing all over the world!"

By then Mariam could hear her son's choking sobs as he explained what had happened. It seemed that millions of people had just disappeared the night before while she slept. No one seemed to know how or why, and most importantly, if it was going to happen again.

"Nate," Mariam said her voice coming out as a hoarse croak," Everything is going to be ok. I am coming home on the first flight I can get out of here and we will figure out where they are."

"But, Mom, I already know what happened to them." Nathaniel told her.

"What do you mean?"

"Dad has been trying to tell me about it and I just did not listen to him." He told his mother. "It is the Rapture. G-d has taken His church and left all of the unbelievers here. Mom, we have been left behind!"


	2. Chapter 2

_I __promise I do not own the Left Behind series and I have not or will not make a single copper penny for writing it. The inspiration for this chapter comes from Jeremy Camp's song "There Will Be a Day."_

**Those Left Behind**

**There Will Be a Day**

_God said to Moses, "I am who I am." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I am has sent me to you.'" God also said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Exodus 3:14_

Nathaniel rolled over trying to hide his face from the early morning sun. Nathaniel, or Nate, as most of his friends liked to call him, was just fifteen years old and shorter than most boys his age. He had unfortunately inherited his mother's height along with her red hair. All of a sudden, Nate sat straight up and began rummaging around on his desk for his glasses, groaning to himself. He hated to sleep in until the sun was shining through his window. It always seemed to start the day off on the wrong foot. As soon as he had placed the glasses on the bridge of his nose, he spotted his clock and saw the red lights that read 8 am. He was late for school and his mom was going to kill him if she found out. Good thing for him, she was out of town.

Nate quickly rolled out of bed and hurriedly put on his clothing for school and made his bed._Why didn't Dad wake me up,_ he wondered to himself as he brushed his teeth. Still brushing his teeth, he walked to his parents' bedroom and knocked on the closed door.

"Hey Dad are awake?" He asked.

The only response he received was silence from the room. Being in a bit of a hurry, he pushed the door open and peered into the room. He saw his Dad's Bible laying on his night stand and an unmade bed._That is odd,_ Nate thought to himself,_Dad always makes the bed as soon as he gets up_. Starting to wonder what was going on, Nate decided to go see if his younger sisters were up yet.

When he walked into his seven soon to be eight year old twin sisters, Faith and Hope's room, he noticed that they also did not make up their beds. Rolling his eyes at the twins' forgetfulness he decided to make their beds so they would not get into trouble over it. As he pulled back the blanket on Hope's bed and he noticed her favorite night gown with the Disney princesses laying under the blanket.

_Why would she leave her night gown under the sheets and not in the laundry?_ Nate wondered to himself.

Nate just shrugged it off tossing the night gown into the twins' clothes hamper. When he moved to Faith's bed he found the same thing, a night gown under the sheets. As he finished making the bed, he could not help but wonder what his sisters were up to and if this was some kind of new game.

When he was finished making the twins' beds he decided to continue looking around the house for his family. As he checked all of the rooms he could feel something heavy settle into the bottom of his stomach. Starting to think that his Dad may have left for work and just forgotten about him, he peeked outside and saw his father's truck sitting in the same spot it had been when his dad had parked it the night before. He also noticed the four-wheelers were parked in the garage and had not been moved. Thinking his Dad may be gone for a while, he decided to grab a bowl of cereal and wait for them to come back.

He decided to sit in the living room and watch T.V. while he waited. When he flipped the T.V. on, there was an emergency broadcast on every single channel.

"As of this time," said the newscaster on the television," We do not know what has caused the millions of disappearances around the world. "

Nate dropped the spoon that was heading to his mouth. What was this man talking about? He hurriedly turned the volume up, not wanting to miss a single word the newscaster had to say.

"It appears," the man on the television continued. "That during the early hours of the morning, millions disappeared without a trace, leaving only the things they were wearing at the time behind. It appears that every nation in the world was affected by the disappearances. Also, it seems every child under the age of twelve is among the missing."

Nate felt his bowl slip off of his lap onto the floor, spilling all of its contents on to the carpet. He stood up and ran to his parent's room, and pulling back the sheets he saw his father's pajama pants and wedding band lying beside the pillow. Not wanting to think that his family had disappeared during the night, he ran from room to room, rechecking for any clue that his family was still home. He ran outside hoping against all odds that his Dad would be there.

"Dad, Hope, Faith where are you?" He hollered at the top of his lungs. "This isn't funny at all! Stop it, please!"

The only answer to his now frantic pleas was the birds chirping away in the trees.

Dejectedly, Nate walked back into the house and turned the television back on, trying to gather anymore information he could. As he watched the news, it seemed the same story was playing over and over again. Everyone was saying the same thing, friends and family had disappeared in the blink of an eye all over the globe.

As he watched, a newscaster was interviewing a woman who had been in labor when the disappearances had occurred and her husband had filmed it. Nate watched in horrified fascination as he saw the woman's belly go from very pregnant to flat in the space of a heartbeat. It appeared that even the unborn were not safe from disappearing into thin air.

Nate sat on the sofa trying to absorb all that had happened. Who had ever heard of millions disappearing in the blink of an eye? Then it hit him with the force of a ton of bricks crashing down from the sky, his Dad had been talking about something like this from his church group. Just the night before when his Dad had forced him to go to church with him, he recalled hearing about something called a Rapture. It was something about G-d taking all of the good people to Heaven before He did something else.

He stood up and ran as fast as he could to his Father's study, pausing only long enough to grab the Bible off of his Father's nightstand. Nate grabbed several of the Bible study pamphlets from his Father's drawer and began to flip through them. He came across one titled "The Signs of the Coming Rapture". Nate flipped open the cover and began to read.

_In 1949,__when Israel was given back to the__Jews,__Jewish__people from all four corners of the world returned to their homeland as it had been foretold in the Bible.(_**_Thus says the Lord God, "Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own Land"-Ezekiel 37:21_**_). That was one of the first signs that we were given by G-d that we should prepare. Last year, G-d showed us another sign__of__His soon to be coming when Russia__led__an attack on Israel along with many of the nations of the Middle East. Despite Russia's heavy artillery and fire power, G-d protected Israel. G-d sent fire from the skies to__destroy__the enemy planes__before they could complete their attack!__The signs are here and soon G-d will take up His church to save them from the Great__Tribulation._

_If you read 1 Corinthians 15:50-54, it tells you about how Jesus will take up all of His believers in one glorious moment. In a twinkling of an eye,__all believers in Christ will be taken,__leaving nothing behind. Can you imagine one moment being here on this earth in the flesh of man and the next standing before G-d Himself! I will tell you,__give your life to G-d today because when__He__comes for__His__church,__you do not want to face the Tribulations that come next._

Nathaniel sucked in a deep breath of shock. His Dad had tried to tell him the truth about G-d but he wouldn't listen to him. Again, it had just been the night before when his father had dragged him to another one of his church Revival meetings, and all he did was sit in a back pew as far away from his father and twin sisters as possible. While the preacher Aiden Black had talked about G-d and His grace, Nate was busy texting his friends and playing Angry Birds on his cellphone. What a little idiot he had been the day before.

Nate picked up his Dad's Bible, thumbing through the pages thinking that if only he had listened to his Dad instead of ignoring him, he would still be with his Dad and sisters. While he was staring dazed at the Bible, he noticed a slip of paper and pulled it out. On the top of it in bold lettering were the words "Prayer Request". Wanting to know what his Dad asked G-d for, he read on.

_Dear Heavenly Father,__you have blessed me beyond measure with a loving wife and three beautiful children. The only thing I ask is that you show me how to be a better husband to my beautiful wife and a better father to my son and daughters. Please Lord,__give me the strength and perseverance to lead my family into your embrace. I know that as I write this my wife and son have not accepted you and your son Jesus as their savior, please Lord have__patience with them. I wish for nothing more in this world then for my family to be saved and to know your grace. I know that they will come to love you as much as I do if they are just given a chance. Thank you Lord G-d for everything that you do for me._

Nathaniel looked at the letter in his hand in disbelief. He had always known his father loved him, but never realized that he prayed for him and even asked G-d to save him. He gently caressed the letter staring at it and wondering if his mother knew that his dad was praying for her.

His Mother was in Chicago. How could he forget that? Nate raced to the kitchen and with trembling hands began to dial his mother's cellphone. By the time he heard the phone ring for the third time, he felt a sickening twist in his gut. Could his Mother have been taken too?

"Hey, David did you get my message? I was just about to call a cab," Said Mariam O'Neil.

"Mom," Nathaniel said, his panicked voice catching in his throat. "Dad and the girls are missing!"

"What are you talking about?" His mother snapped at him.

"I woke up late for school and went to go see why Dad never woke me up. When I went into your bedroom, he wasn't there and his car was still here. I checked Hope and Faith's room but they were not there." He explained to his mother. "Mom, I have looked everywhere and they are not here! I turned the T.V. on and, Mom, people are missing all over the world!"

By the time Nate had finished his explanation he had tears running down his face and his voice had become ragged. His dad and sisters were gone, taken up by what he thought was the Rapture and all he had left was his mother. He felt torn on whether he should be grateful she was still here or scared that she had not been taken. He knew she was not all about church like his father and was always finding reasons not to go with his dad to church and Nate had done the same.

"Mom I saw it all on the television," Nathaniel began to explain. "During the night people disappeared all over the world leaving nothing but their clothing behind. Every child under the age of twelve is missing, even unborn babies have disappeared! Adults were taken too! It has happened in every country in the world!"

"Nate," Mariam said her voice coming out as a hoarse croak," Everything is going to be ok. I am coming home on the first flight I can get out of here and we will figure out where they are."

"But Mom, I already know what happened to them." Nathaniel tried to explain to his mother.

"What do you mean?" Came the sharp reply on the other end of the phone.

"Dad has been trying to tell me about it and I just did not listen to him." He told his mother. "It is the Rapture. G-d has taken His church and left all of the unbelievers here. Mom we have been left behind!"

"What nonsense," Exclaimed Mariam.

"Mom, Dad was trying to tell me just a few days ago about it and his church was talking about it last night." Nate tried to reason with his mother." He also has some pamphlets and books about it in his study."

"Nate, honey, let's not talk about this right now," Nate could hear his mother take a couple of deep calming breaths before she continued. "I am going to try and find out some more information about what is going on. I want you to stay home and keep the phone by you. I am going to see if the airlines are still flying. If not, I am going to rent a car and drive home. I will be home as quickly as possible."

"Mom, I love you, please be careful," He whispered into the phone.

"Nate everything will be ok," Came the hoarse reply from Mariam. "I will call you shortly and tell you how long it will be until I get home. I love you son and we will get through whatever this is, I promise you."

As Nate hung up the phone with his mom, he could not help but feel that he should have told her more about what he had read in his father's study, but he had no idea where to start. If G-d had taken up His church, did that mean that he was damned for all eternity? What was supposed to happen to those who were left? Could they even have the salvation from sin that his father was always talking to him about? Or was it already too late?

Nate walked to his father's office wanting to look around and see if maybe he left anything that could help explain what was going on. As he flipped through his Dad's books and paper work, he kept coming across pamphlets with the name Glad Tidings in a swirling gold script with a phone number underneath it. Could anyone else from the church have been left behind and would they have any idea what would happen next?

Nathaniel picked up the phone and began to dial the number, wondering if anyone would pick up on the other end. He felt a bit foolish calling a church when G-d had already taken all of His church. He counted each ring, hoping against all odds that someone would pick up on the other end. On the seventh ring he heard the click of the answering machine.

"This is Glad Tidings Assembly of G-d Church," said the deep voice of Aiden Black. "We are unable to make it to the phone at..."

The answering machine suddenly clicked off and a different voice replaced it "Hello. Who is this? Were you left behind too?"

"Yes," Nate replied.

"Do you know what happens now?" the voice on the other end asked.

"I was hoping someone at the church would know. That is why I called." Nate said, starting to wonder if this was a good idea. "By the way, who are you?"

"I am Tom Black my Dad is...was the pastor of this church before yesterday. Who are you?" was the reply from the other end of the phone.

Nathaniel vaguely remembered a young man he had seen with Pastor Aiden when he had gone with church with his father. The only reason he really remembered the guy was that he did not fit into the Pastor's cookie cutter family with his long shaggy black hair, eye liner and over the top gothic look. The few times Nate had seen the other boy he was dressed in black, looking sullen and unhappy to be in the church. He also remembered over hearing a conversation a few months ago between his Dad and Aiden Black. It seemed that Tom was brought home by the police. He was caught smoking pot at a park close to his home. This was not the first incident Tom had with the law. The year before he had gotten into trouble for vandalism if Nathaniel recalled correctly.

"I'm Nate O'Neil. My Dad attended Glad Tidings and when I woke up this morning, he and my little sisters were gone, just like all of the other people. I think it was G-d who took them." He could not believe he said all that to a complete stranger. Telling his mom what he had thought had happened to his family was one thing, but to tell someone who he didn't know was one of the boldest things he had ever done.

"Yeah, my family is gone too. I am the only one left," Tom whispered into the phone. "My parents, my brothers, sister, grandparents, aunts and all of my cousins."

"Do you have a place to stay?" He asked the other boy feeling sorry for his predicament. Nate now appreciated his mom even more because at least he still had someone.

"I have the house behind the church my family lives….lived in but it is very empty now." Tom explained.

"Would you like to come and stay with my mom and me?" He asked. He hoped that his mother would not mind him inviting the other boy there without talking to her first. He just felt it was the right thing to do. After all if his mother had been taken, what would he have done without her?

There was a long pause on the other end of the line, only broken up by the sound of Tom taking a few shaky deep breaths. Nate began to wonder if he had offended or upset the other boy somehow and began to form an apology to him for being so forward.

"You would really do that for me?" Tom questioned him. "I have never had anyone try to help me before. Well except my own family, but I think they are supposed to do that."

"We are not all that different now, "Nate replied. "We have both missed the single greatest event in the history of man."

"Yeah I guess you are right," Was all Tom said in return.

"Why don't you get your stuff packed up and I will drive my Dad's truck into town and pick you up. I have my drivers permit and I have a feeling not many people will care if I am driving without an adult today of all days." Nate told the other boy.

"Umm ok, that sounds good to me. How long do you think it will take you to get here?" said Tom.

"It shouldn't take me more than 20 minutes or so to get there. My Dad keeps a bunch of empty boxes in the storage shed. I'll bring some of them so you can box anything you want to take with you into them." Nate paused a moment before going on. "Could you do one thing for me?"

"I guess so. What do you want?" Came the leery reply.

"Could you check to see if your parents had any books about the what is going on?" Nate asked.

"Yeah that will be no problem. I thought you were going to ask for money or something." Tom said with a nervous laugh.

"No, I just want to help you." Nate told the other boy. He did recall seeing something about mass burglaries since the disappearances. "Though you may want to hide or take with you any valuables in the house. There have been quite a few break-ins since people have discovered people were missing. "

"I will do that. I am going to let you go so I can start packing." Tom told him.

"Ok I will be at the church soon as I can." Nate said before hanging up the phone.

Nate recalled his mother telling him to stay home, but decided that it would be fine to go pick up Tom as long as he did not take too long. He decided to send a text message to his mom telling her about their new guest. He then headed out to the storage shed and grabbed a bunch of boxes and loaded them into his dad's truck. Today was going to be the hardest day of his life and he had a feeling that things would not be getting any better.


End file.
